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This page hosts a proposal for various work packages which are meant to bring KiCad on par with proprietary software regarding features that are required for designing boards of similar complexity to our SPEC and SVEC projects. We are actively working on these packages. Our developments happen completely within the frame of the official KiCad project, in complete synchronism with the rest of the KiCad development community. If you would like to help us move faster through the list, please consider donating so we can use additional external help.

Type: framework/libraryDepends on: editable version depends on the tool frameworkGoal: robust display layer for all KiCad applications, based on the GAL. Refactoring towards clean MVC model.First client: tool frameworkStatus: available in the official KiCad product branchSpecific release: pcbnew (and later on, all apps) with the new display engine.

Graphical item view for all KiCad applications, based on the Graphics Abstraction Layer.

Done:

Improve the GAL, so that it is capable of rendering a complex board on entry-level hardware. Initially, support two GAL backends: - OpenGL for 'normal' work. Must be extremely fast, things like anti-aliasing are second priority here. - Cairo for high quality rendering, bitmap export and maybe printing.

Integrate the VIEW in pcbnew. First stage of integration will result in non-editable view, that can be switched with the legacy one during run time.

Refactor printing to use the GAL (via either wxDC or cairo). Cairo provides native printing (via GDI+) on Windows and a PS filter for Linux/OSX. Use native GTK printing dialog under Linux (default in wx 2.9)

Globals/statics cleanup, so several instances of these apps should run in parallel inside a common shell.

Remove unnecessary build flags. The main reason is to limit the number of possible build configurations, which is often abused by Linux users/package maintainers to produce incompatible software packages. Features that are truly optional, should never be handled by #ifdefs, but turned into DLL/DSO plugins or Python scripts. Such flags are:- KICAD_KEEPCASE: we should be either case-sensitive or not (currently it is ON by default, I guess it could be removed soon without any serious harm).- KICAD_SCRIPTING: basic feature that must not be disabled once fully integrated and tested: DRC classes will become scriptable, filter tool will require Python expressions.- KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON: with the tool framework in place, wxPython console could become another DLL/DSO tool.- USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT: will be replaced by the GAL/VIEW.- USE_WX_OVERLAY: same as above

Type: improvementDepends on: View/Tool frameworksGoal: Ease and speed up the process of footprint creation.Status: available in the official KiCad product branchSpecific release: KiCad with GAL-based module editor.

Done:

Module viewer and editor use the Graphics Abstraction Layer to display items.

Study ergonomics of various commercial/proprietary PCB applications (when in doubt about any particular UI solution, check how it has been done in a certain proprietary app that is very popular among OSHW folks and do exactly opposite).

Clean up menu structure. Menus must allow access to all features of the program in a clear and logical way. Currently some functions of pcbnew are accessible only through toolbars.

Use new wxWidgets and wxAUI for toolbars, enable detaching and disabling. This will probably need standardizing all builds (Windows, Linux, OSX) to use the same version of wxWidgets.

Currently KiCad does not track atomic changes between subsequent updates between SCH & PCB. We need a concept of an ECO (engineering change of order) that describes a list of atomic changes between two netlists. This will allow robust forward/backannotation between pcbnew and eeschema and enable features like pin/part/bus/differential pair swapping.

For instance, if the user modifies the value, footprint and swaps the pins of an electrolytic capacitor, the ECO shall contain 6 following atomic entries:

When updating the PCB/SCH, the list of changes is presented to the user and he is given a choice which ones get committed,just like in a revision control system. The same mechanism can be used to diff netlists between different versions of schematics/PCB designs.

integrate into eeschema/PCBnew. Add "Update PCB/SCH" option that will launch comparison/annotation process (available in eeschema in the experimental branch)

To do:

develop pin swapping configuration dialog: for each of the components on the schematic, pins/subparts can be assigned to a swap group. Group information gets propagated to pcbnew via extra fields in the netlist.

develop pin/part swapper pcbnew tool, that highlights and numbers all swappable pins/parts (indicating swap groups using colors or labels), and upon clicking on a pair of pins that belong to same group, swaps their nets. Swapped net info is passed back to eeschema via the ECO mechanism.

support net label backannotation in the eeschema: for nets that have changed pins, net labels on wire stubs connected to pins are swapped.

Type: featureDepends on: tool framework, geometry libraryGoal: ability to select (just select) any objects on a schematic/PCB.Status: available in the official KiCad product branchSpecific release: pcbnew and eeschema with object selection and drag&drop editing.

Done:

It is possible to select single items by clicking them or select multiple items at the same time by drawing a selection box.

In case of disambiguation while selecting a single item, there is a context menu shown, that allows to decide which of items should be selected.

Items presented in the disambiguation menu are marked in a specific way as user highlights a menu entry.

Additive selection is possible by holding Shift key while selecting items (then the selection is being extended rather than discarding previous items and replacing them with the current choice).

Selected items can be modified by the move tool. The tool can be invoked using hot keys ('M' to start moving selected items, 'F' for flipping and 'R' for rotation while they are in the move), context menu (right mouse button click on selection to display one) or by simply dragging selected items with mouse.

There is a simple undo operation available, that rollbacks the current modifications before they are applied. To reverse the last operation, simply press ESC while dragging items.

The selection tool takes into account current display settings. That means that it does not select invisible items or those which are grayed out in the high contrast mode. It also does not allow to select lines that belong to modules and are displayed on silkscreen layer, in order not to break module drawings.

In cases when there can be a whole module or a single track selected, the tool chooses the smaller object. Whole module can be selected by clicking on a space that does not contain any other objects or by using a selection box.

Zones can be selected either by clicking on any of their edges or by drawing a selection box that contains the whole zone.

If there are two overlapping tracks on different layers, disambiguation menu should be triggered only if the tracks are that is mutually covered is larger than certain threshold.

add a graphical net property (attribute) object in eeschema. Such objects hold additional attributes, such as SI parameters (diff/single ended, impedance) or clearance information that is compiled into the PCB netlist.

add an option to declare certain components 'virtual'. Such components are not exported to PCB netlist, but can be used for simulations (i.e. U/I probes, votage sources, etc.)

do a survey of available simulators (candidates: ngspice, gnucap, Qucs)

find a nice plotting library that plays well with wxWidgets

add support for exporting netlists in the format supported by the simulator

handle simulator output in a consistent way through our plotting library (in LTSpice, it is done remarkably well!)

develop a 'fine tune' tool that allows modification of component values on-the-fly. Each value gets a scrollbar/knob. Adjusting the knob re-runs the simulation and updates the plots. May require hacking the simulator code.

put all of above in a plugin. There can be multiple plugins, supporting different simulators.